Million dollar gas hack.

I wonder how much fuel could be saved by avoiding unnecessary residential deliveries. How many delivery attempt notices does UPS leave every day?<p>If shippers provided UPS with an email address for the recipient a notice could be sent by email the day before a package is to be delivered. This notice could provide options to let UPS know to wait a day or two to attempt delivery when someone will be there or redirect the package to a commercial address (e.g. the recipient's place of employment).<p>I recently had a package delivered that required a signature. After the first attempt I called UPS and had it redirected to my work address. Unfortunately they already had it on the truck so I was told they would attempt delivery to my home address the next day before redirecting it.

Presumably, the most efficient delivery path to take must include left turns... right? I wonder if the efficiency gained by only turning right is greater than the efficiency lost by taking a less efficient route?

I dunno, I did this (right hand turns whenever possible) like 20 years ago in my first job, when I had to drive around Toronto. So I doubt I am the only one who thought of this before ...

Unmentioned but also significant: avoiding left turns means fewer accidents.

&#62;You see it seems that some analyst at UPS got some modeling software and came up with this plan.<p>This was a little beyond "some analyst"... even if it was originally the idea of one person, the actual plan took many, many people to implement. Solving real versions of the traveling salesman problem takes a lot of manpower. UPS hires more Industrial Engineers than anyone else.

I'm curious how they optimized for this. Perhaps some sort of linear programming or variation of the "traveling salesman" problem?

without putting too much thought into it. i would assume that the most common route looks like a inward decaying clockwise spiral.